[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNCEV7ZSNFo&feature=player_embedded]
I’ve never really heard Ke$ha sing before. I’ve listened to her songs, but behind all the sound effects, strobe lights and multi-colored outfits, it’s often hard to tell what the pop star actually sounds like.
So I was surprised to discover that her version of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right,” off Amnesty International’s four-disc Chimes of Freedom compilation (featuring 76 Dylan covers!) is actually pretty good. She doesn’t imitate Dylan, she doesn’t even follow the song’s original pace or rhythm. Instead, she cries out the lyrics in a hushed, emotionally brutal performance. Dylan’s original version of the song was a flippant f— you to a former loved one. Ke$ha’s reminds that lover that actually, what he did was wrong and that actually, it isn’t all right.